Australia Loses Fight With Varroa Mite, Beekeepers Forced to Live With Pest

Over 27,000 hives have been destroyed over the past year in an effort to eliminate the pest.

Bees are seen on a honeycomb cell at the BEE Lab hives at The University of Sydney on May 18, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. The BEE Lab researches the behaviour, ecology and evolution of bees combining work in both the lab and the field. Australian bee populations were decimated by the Black Summer bushfires at the end of 2019 and early 2020 with around 2.5 billion bees and 10,000 commercial beehives destroyed in New South Wales and Victoria alone. Increased rainfall over the last year, along with concerted efforts by Australian apiarists has seen bee populations recover in 2021. Australia has an estimated 2,000 species of native bee, along with the European honey bee, which according to the NSW Department of Primary Industries plays an important role in large-scale agricultural pollination services and provide beeswax and honey to the domestic and export market. With bee populations under significant threat globally from extreme climate events, destruction of natural habitat, intensive farming practices, pests and disease, World Bee Day on 20 May aims to increase awareness and highlight the significance of bees and other pollinators to ensure food security, biodiversity and maintain a healthy ecosystem. Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

The state of New South Wales (NSW) has officially ended its program to eradicate varroa mite through mass culling of beehives and has shifted to learning to live with the bee parasite.

The NSW government announced on Sept. 19 that the National Management Group (NMG), the body responsible for the varroa mite response, had reached the unanimous decision to transition the response from eradication to management. They acknowledged that eradication was “no longer technically feasible.”